Got a play? The Long Beach Playhouse (LBPH) is calling for submissions of unproduced play scripts for its 2022 New Works Festival competition.
“All playwrights are welcome and invited to submit a play; the only requirement is that the play has not been previously produced,” LBPH says. “Plays that have been performed as staged readings or in workshops qualify, but those that have been delivered as full productions are not.”
LBPH Executive Director Madison Mooney told the Signal Tribune that the company has held a New Works Festival for about 30 years.
“It’s a way we can encourage new and experienced playwrights to create new theatre works,” she said.
Playwrights can submit scripts through the New Works Festival submission page on LBPH’s website. There is a submission fee of $15 and plays should be in PDF form.
Winners will be selected after a New Works Literary Committee reads and evaluates each script, narrowing down to a list of finalists. It will then select two finalists for staged readings of their plays in late March or early April 2022.
“In addition to the staged reading, a critique is provided by a professional theater critic,” LBPH stated in a kickoff announcement. “Following each staged reading, a talkback session is moderated, with questions from the audience for the actor, director and the playwright.”
Winners of the 2021 New Works Festival—chosen from 2020 submissions—will be presented virtually on June 4 and 5 through LBPH’s website, lbplayhouse.org.
Staged readings of the winning plays—Suzie Heaton’s “Book Club” and Marc Littman’s “Leon’s Warning”—will be shown prerecorded, with a live online talkback after each show. The event is free to the public with support of a Port of Long Beach grant, though registration is required.
Each year LBPH receives 75 to 140 scripts for its New Works Festival, Mooney said, adding that she’s not sure how the COVID-19 pandemic will affect this year’s submissions. LBPH has received 30 scripts so far and the submission deadline is June 30.
“I know some folks have had a rough time this past year trying to be creative and have had artistic block,” she said. “But for others I know, they finally felt like they had some free time and have been writing more, painting more and finally finished a long-ago forgotten project.”
The pandemic has been difficult for theatres as well due to health guidelines barring indoor congregation—effectively halting productions. Most area theatres had to cancel their planned seasons or move some productions online, which is not always possible due to licensing or as straightforward as filming a staged play due to actor-union safety guidelines that require social distancing.
See related story: Long Beach theatres plan live shows in 2021– with fingers crossed
LBPH has been able to offer only virtual versions of plays since March 2020—William Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” and Austin James and Sarah Hoeven’s series, “Zoom’s Fairytales.” Both can still be streamed for a donation through LBPH’s website.
Now that Gov. Gavin Newsom is planning to ease restrictions in California as of June 15—with about half the population vaccinated with one dose and new virus cases, hospitalizations and deaths plunging— theatres can once again plan live productions.
“We are hopeful for a September reopening,” Mooney said. “Finalizing those plans and having tickets available for purchase in the summer will depend on, well, everything.”
